Brownimecia

Brownimecia clavata is known from three adult fossils: the holotype—specimen number AMNH NJ-667—collected by Yale Goldman; the paratype; and a third described in 2005. All the described specimens are worker caste adult females which have been preserved as inclusions in transparent chunks of New Jersey amber. The amber specimens were recovered from deposits of the South Amboy Fire Clay, part of the Raritan Formation. New Jersey amber has been dated to approximately 90 to 94 mya, placing it in the Turonian of the Late Cretaceous. Analysis of the amber composition indicates it originated as cupressaceous resins which were deposited in lagoons and salt water marshes along the Cretaceous eastern seaboard. The type fossils were first studied by paleoentomologists David Grimaldi, Donat Agusti, and James Carpenter of the American Museum. The team's 1997 type description of the new genus and species was published in the journal American Museum Novitates. In his 2007 phylogenetic examination of Formicidae, entomologist Philip Ward notes the possibility that Brownimecia is a crown group genus and placed the subfamily into the informal "poneroid" grouping in his phylogeny. ==Description==

Both the Brownimecia holotype worker and the 2005 worker are complete and fully preserved in curled positions and have their stings extended. • Brownimecia clavata • Brownimecia inconspicua ==References==